The Paths We Chose
by xThat One Personx
Summary: A collection of short stories about the pasts of the everyone in my fic Dog Days. Enjoy
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The death is born part 1/4

[Vale 5th armored regiment 2nd battalion (Steel Juggernauts), Ruben Field]

Go into battle hoping to live and you will surely die.

Go into battle hoping to die and you will surely live

"Port side hull Breached. Armor critical." A computerized female voice announced. . A Valean Enforcer MBT with a sizable hole in the side set in the middle of the forest surrounded by smoldering vehicles of its kind. Craters and bodies strewn about indiscriminately.

"Main Cannon offline" The White Fang had ambushed the troops when they were passing through the uneven landscape of forest that hindered their mobility. The faunus had paid dearly for this victory as well, their own ranks littered among the dead.

"Fuel leakage in department one. Warning department one temperature is rising" Not a living soul could be found it scarred battlefield. All of this caused by opposing ideas, the pride of desperate old men. Could this all have been avoided? Was this blood shed really necessary?

The moon was bright tonight, not bothering to hide the ugly picture underneath it. Its beams shone through the open cavity of war machine illuminating all inside. The men inside still manned their positions even in death.

"Department one temperature at one hundred and fifty degrees Recommend crew clear the premises"

The gunner had been about to fire when the militant had taken it out with some sort of rpg killing the occupants. The machine had cost millions of lien to make and it was gone with the pull of a trigger, just like the others around it. Hundreds of lives snuffed out.

"Squeak" But where there is death there is also life. "Squeak" A lone field mouse hops through the gaping hole of the tank letting its nose leads it. It scrambles across the floor and up the pants leg of the gunners mate. It reaches the top and scratches at the man's chest to no avail, the flak jacket keeping it from its prize.

"Squeak" the rodent spots the perfect target. It hops down from the man's lap and runs over to another with his back against the hull. It sniffs his exposed fingers in delight voicing its triumph before hopping into the open palm and biting into the ring finger. Suddenly, the mouse's inurns exploded from its mouth and rectum as the fingerless gloved hand squeezed the life out of it in a split second.

Brown eyes opened to stare lazily out the hole of the enforcer. The man didn't move nor speak, he only breathed shallowly while gazing at something distant and unattainable, dry blood leaving trails down his face. He was identified only by his uniform as Corporal Speirs.

He blinked once than twice, his eyes starting to focus in on the world around him. His lips moved but made no noise like he couldn't remember what it was he wanted to say. "Rea-" he mumbled. His eyebrows squinted as he racked his mind for the words.

"Ready…" His mouth failed him as he tried to finish his statement. He rolled his head to the side taking in the closed breach cap to the barrel. It was loaded. He gazed dumbly at the reloading mechanisms with his mouth hanging slightly open.

Minutes passed by like seconds as time seemed to be stopped inside the Enforcer. His eyes began moving taking in the shape of what he was looking at it. His eyes open slightly as he uttered his discovered words: "Ready to fire…Sir" As he said the last word he looked slowly to his right. In a chair facing away from him sit the tanks commander.

His eyes were starting to gain back their lost light to them now. His body felt stiff as he pushed himself forward on his hands. "Greasy" he called out grabbing his companions shoulder. He shook him "Greasy". He pulled himself up to eye level of his CO. A jagged piece of metal split the visor of the crewman down the middle.

"Department one temperature at one hundred and eighty degrees" The noise caught his attention to a badly cracked screen in front of his friend. On it depicted a picture of tank with numerous gauges and percentages. The whole left side of the hologram tank was flashing red.

"Shit…" He was aware now as he turned away from the corpse without a second glance. He stood underneath the entrance/exit hatch of the tank and pulled the latch aside to unlock it. It wouldn't budge. He grunted with exertion as he hefted on the damn thing again.

"Department one temperature at two hundred degrees" announced the female voice "Ignition of fuel imminent"

He yelled as his efforts were futile "Piece of shit!". He leaned back against the eight inch steel hull breathing heavily. He watched as the temperature readings on the console increased, he was going to die. Where most would think of their family in their final hours his bind was completely blank. He didn't weep or whine like many would no, he just stood there.

A gentle breeze caressing his back caused him to turn around and take in the hole once again." Department one temperature at two hundred and ten degrees" He quickly attempted to get climb through the gap only to find he was too large. He unclasped the straps to his webbing and threw it to the side, his flak jacket was next as he unzipped it and took his arms out.

It was a snug fit but his shoulders went through and he slipped out of the hole. He was on his feet and running as soon as he was out and no later than he was about to jump into the ditch for safety the tank imploded on its self. The force of the explosion knocked him over the hill and sent him rolling. Every hard object thinkable seemed to have placed itself in his path because by the time he finally stopped it looked as he had just been tortured.

He laid there for a while just looking up at the moon. It was a beautiful offset of the rest of the area around him. He got up and brushed himself off while looking around him. 'Where am I? 'he thought as he walked aimlessly through the forest. It would take him forever to link up with the main force and that's if he actually got out of these damn woods.

"ON your knees!" ordered a White Fang member who had heard the explosion and came to investigate. His hand went to his holster only to remember he left it "You little shit! I said on your knees!" Slowly the soldier got down with his hands behind his head "You in these guys unit?!" He gestured to a body.

"Corporal Speirs"

The faunus wasn't happy with this at all. He walked up and placed the barrel of his gun inches from the man's face "Do you want to fucking die?! Answer me you fuck!"

He didn't dare look but he could see movement out the corner of his eye "Corporal Speirs" The blur crept slowly up behind the terrorist.

"Fine have it your way! Die bitch!" The tree branch hit hard enough to break bones as it collided with the faunus face putting him down for the count. But the attacker wasn't done; he beat the poor guys face in until it was nothing but a red spot on the ground.

"Animal…" Only now did the soldier look up at his savoir. He was wearing the same uniform as the Valean Army but was wearing some type of harness "How long are you going to sit there soldier?" He said while extending a hand.

Alex accepted it "Thank-you" Without his intervention he like the now dead faunus wouldn't have a head "Are you with the 5th?"

"No but we didn't fare any better" he replied looking around "I'm with 3rd airborne"

'That describes the harness' he thought "Where's the rest of your unit?"

He scowled "You're looking at it kid" answered the paratrooper "Got split up from the rest of the guys and from what I've seen seeing I assume they are dead, names Lachlan by the way."

"Spiers, do you have any idea where we are?"

"I got a good layout of the land coming down. This shit goes on for a good twenty miles north but if we go east we will be out of it in a day…"

"And?"

"I just came from the east, place is fucking crawling"

"What do you suggest?" Speirs had crouched down and was going through the pockets of the White Fang trying to find something useful.

"We go south" Speirs gave him and incredulous look "Listen, the enemy hasn't had enough time to hunker down yet. There's bound to be a few gaps"

"Yes so let's just walk right through the enemy lines…"

"Would you rather trek twenty miles through Grimm infested woods?"

[Speirs, Ruben field]

Well when you put it that way "Good point, I guess we don't have a choice" I sighed while searching through the faunus's pockets. Guy didn't have shit.' Atleast there this' I picked up the rifle.

"You're kidding right?" He was looking at me like I was completely stupid. "You fire that damn thing and you will have every animal within a kilometer bearing down on us"

"Do you suggest I throw my boot at the enemy?" Fucking airbornes always had their noses in the air when it came to us normal grunts. Still though, the guy did save my life. His ever present scowl deepened as he walked away from me. Well that was a short partnership.

He stopped at one of my comrades and lent down to pick something up. "Here" I caught the combat knife with my left hand "Try not to cut yourself" Asshole "Let's get a move on we are wasting time"

'This ought to be fun' I looked behind at all of my fallen comrades. Sorry guys but it looks like I'm the only one walking away from here. I'll make to send some White Fang assholes in the next life to keep you company.

"Are you coming" My companion was already insufferably.

AN: The chapters of these short stories won't be long so I can pump them out faster but in the end they will add up to about 8k.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The death is born part 2/4

Devil Dog: No not even a gunner, he just reloaded the damn thing. Not badass enough for you?

[Speirs, Ruben Field]

'Enemies ahead' signaled Lachlan 'Three'. This had been reoccurring occurrence throughout our little hike through the woods. It was almost impossible to sneak past them, most of the time we could only wait until they passed which was going to be the case this time as we got low to the ground.

I slowly crawled to the edge of the hill to peak over. I could see them below conversing with one another, they weren't well armed and they didn't appear to be going anywhere any time soon. The others we had seen were scattered and unorganized; they like us were just trying to get back to their own. This was a lookout; we were getting closer to the main unit.

Turning to the paratrooper for guidance I was caught off guard by the look on his face. He wasn't looking at White Fang members, he was looking at faunus. I've seen a lot of racist isn't my time but no one brought it to his level. It was almost chilling to be around him when he got like this, thank you mom and dad for being human.

Mom and dad, hadn't thought about those two in a while. They pretty much dropped me in favor of my bitch brother. Oh Alex why can't you paint like your brother? Oh Alex why can't you make good grades like your brother. Then there's my personnel favorite, oh Alex why can't you be as handsome as your brother.

My enlistment didn't help at all. No no no, it was like I told them I was a child molester! But then my brother Kanton goes to signal and he might as well have became a god! I hope the asshole washes out and turns into a good for nothing maybe then my parents will look in my direction. Who knows maybe after this I will a shiny medal. Until then though I will always be Alex the fuck up.

I brought my attention back to Lachlan. He was much older than me but not what I what would call ancient, he had a 'been there done that' vibe to him. I caught his gaze and lifted my eye brows in a 'What now?' The bastard ignored me and resumed his death glares at those below us.

"I think she's really into me" announced a squeaky voice "I've been pretty much throwing myself after for a while and I think it's finally paying off" The tallest tried and failed to suppress his laughter while the one without his mask scratched the back of his head and gave the youth an awkward smile "What?"

"You're talking about Minx right….?" The maskless asked.

The youth's entire frame seemed to droop "You didn't. Please tell me you didn't" he begged.

"I'm sorry man I did-"He didn't get to finish his sentence as the youth jumped on him letting out a primal scream. The tallest didn't lift a finger to break the two up; he seemed contempt with enjoying the show.

Lachlan shook me and gestured to follow him. I nodded and wearily got on my feet. We timed our movements to the fight. When it got loud we moved, when it got quiet we stopped. It felt like we were playing red light green light.

CRUNCH

Being sneaky isn't exactly what I was trained to do! I cringed as I turned my head to look at the party of three. The squeaky one was still unleashing his rage on his Sauvé friend. 'Fuck I need to watch where I step' I chastised myself while turning back to Lachlan. This guy's face looked like something out of a horror movie; the ever present scowl had turned into something along the lines of a human Beowulf.

'Fucking idiot' he mouthed. Everyone makes mistakes you dick. I glared at him until he resumed being a real life ninja. Give me some fancy training and they wouldn't need an army to take care of this mess. They'd be like 'Hey Speirs go kill some shit for us, Hoohah!'. And bitches. I'd have harem of sexy ass bitches everywhere I went coding to my every desire and believe me I have a lot of desire. Dust why didn't I think about this ages ago?!

"You guys finish up I gotta shit" said an alarmingly close voice. 'Shit' I threw myself down next to a fallen hollow tree. I tried to spot Lachlan ahead of me but was unable, I wonder if he would leave me if I was comprised. No don't even think about that. I'm just going to lay here and everything is going to be fine. "Where have you been all my life?" He was right on the other side, I tucked myself is as far as possible.

He plopped his down on the tree 'What?'. The most awfulness of noises was produced from above as the man defiled nature. Kurplunk. OH dust it smells horrible! Kerplunk. What did you eat?!. The manned groaned above as he prepared to loose whatever was left. Please no more….He was having none of it as his ass conducted the most disgusting orchestra to hit Vale, he put so much feeling into his shit music.

'Someone help me!'

[Lachlan, Ruben Field]

"Where is he?" I asked myself. I couldn't leave him to his own devices for even a minute! Was it that hard to follow me? Was I not clear enough?! I couldn't leave a fellow soldier but dust something was seriously wrong with this bloke. He didn't seem at all worried that his buddies were dead or that he was second away from dying. I think that explosion knocked a screw loose. If I had my squad….I'll make sure these faunus pay for that one. The faunus had hunting us down when we touched down before we could properly regroup. It was either stay in that part and die trying to find each other or get our asses of their. Hopefully some of the others got out ok too.

I looked around while I waited for the kid. We had gotten mostly out of the hilly region and was entering the flat ground that Ruben Field was comprised of. This would make laying low a bitch. Without the cover the uneven ground offered we might as well wave at the enemy. If the enemy was digging down we needed to hurry up and get passed this area now. Where are you kid?!

I got down as I heard footsteps coming from behind, my combat knife made a quiet 'shink' as I pulled it from its sheath. They were getting closer and coming towards my position as well. 'One less animal today' I thought as I got ready to lunge at him when he came around the hill.

The White Fang don't wear camouflage.

I'll be dammed, took him long enough. "Did you stop to sightsee?" I asked angrily to the crewman "Or did you get a hangnail?" He held up his hand to me while passing. If he thought that was it then he's even more stupid then I previously thought "Are you going to answer me?". De didn't as he leaned up against a tree.

The boys mouth suddenly threw up everything he's ate the last day or so all over the ground. It was like a never ending faucet of puke. I took few steps back while he continued to retch. He gagged even after there was nothing left to heave.

"Something happen…? I asked still keeping a good distance away from him. Bile dripped from his mouth whilst he looked at the ground with an unreadable expression.

"Someone dropped a moab"

[Speirs, Ruben Field]

I spewed for I don't know how long before I was left complete empty "Someone dropped a moab"

Was it possible to get ptsd from an experience such as that because I firmly believe you can. I could still smell it. Getting the fuck away from horrible producing smell man was my top priority that trumped all others. I'd rather get shot then go through that again!

"How much farther?"

"Look ahead…."

I did as he said "I don't see anything"

"LOOK HARDER" He growled, Sheesh just asking.

OH! I could see it now. This never ending spectrum of trees did have an end! I followed Lachlan towards the tree line. "The FOB shouldn't be far"

"Good, keeping your ass alive is proving to be a job"

Sorry that I'm not some airborne dickhead "Come on Lachy don't be like that!"

He was like that…the WHOLE time


End file.
